


strawberry

by Molnija



Category: Free!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, M/M, back at it again with the g-rated ikuhiyo, look this is just floof. that's all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 16:16:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15975914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molnija/pseuds/Molnija
Summary: “What,” Hiyori said, staring incredulously at the absolute battlefield in front of him, “are you doing?”





	strawberry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [makoharued](https://archiveofourown.org/users/makoharued/gifts).



> Hana asked for domestic fluff Ikuhiyo and I'm nothing if not a writer of pointless floof. not as domestic as I wanted it to be but ... this is as close as it gets I'm sorry I never have any idea what I'm doing
> 
> look there is literally nothing to this. it's so short I would have posted it on Tumblr normally but this tag needs some soft things okay
> 
> writing this made me feel very warm inside though ........

“What,” Hiyori said, staring incredulously at the absolute battlefield in front of him, “are you doing?”

Ikuya had half of a whisk in one hand, some thick pink liquid dripping from his hair, and a look on his face that read half like _go away, I can do this on my own_ and half like _oh my god please help me_. That was nothing to even speak of the kitchen – Hiyori hadn’t known they even owned this many pots and he was pretty sure that the flour was supposed to be in at least one of them, not all over the counter. He thought he saw roughly a dozen broken eggs in the sink, there was milk spilled on the stove, something that looked vaguely like yolk running down the oven door …

“My best,” Ikuya muttered.

Hiyori had gone out to buy groceries two hours ago because Ikuya had said they were running short on a bunch of necessities. It wouldn’t have taken him nearly as long if those necessities hadn’t included the brand of chocolate cookies you could only buy at a store that was usually so crowded he only bothered with it to get those cookies specifically, but he knew Ikuya loved them and he didn’t mind it all that much, really.

What he hadn’t expected had been coming home to … Whatever this was.

In fact, he was still standing in the doorframe, bags in hand, just gaping. It was a rare sight to see Ikuya in the kitchen in the first place – there was a reason Hiyori did all their cooking, his boyfriend was good at a lot of things but making edible food wasn’t one of them –, but based on what kind of mess he’d made, it looked like he’d been trying to … Bake something, maybe?

Not that he’d actually gotten to the baking part yet.

“You know,” Hiyori started with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, though still frozen in place, “if you wanted to eat something else, you could have just asked and I’d have made it for you.”

Ikuya averted his eyes, his gaze landing on the flour-stained counter, and mumbled something Hiyori didn’t understand.

“Sorry, what was that?” His body finally decided that it was ready to move again, and he closed the door behind him and placed the bags on the lunch table before heading for Ikuya, who didn’t say another word. The kitchen looked even more terrible up close. Was there dough stuck to the wall or was he imagining that?

Being able to so thoroughly wreck your surroundings without even meaning to was actually amazing in a way.

“Alright, uh …” It was pretty late, almost 10pm last time he’d checked, and cleaning this up would certainly take a while, but they couldn’t just leave it like this. “Are you planning on doing anything with this?”

Ikuya still wasn’t looking at him, instead opting to reach for one of the pots and carrying it to the sink before stopping, presumably because he realised that said sink was still full of the remains of what had once been eggs.

Watching this hurt Hiyori’s heart. He looked genuinely dejected. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked softly, placing a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. “I don’t really know what you did, but you don’t learn if you don’t make mistakes, right?”

He wasn’t really sure what he was saying, but he needed to cheer him up somehow.

And then, so quietly he almost didn’t catch it, Ikuya said, “I wanted to surprise you.”

Ah, there it was – another one of those moments that made Hiyori’s heart feel strangely full, those he’d thought would come less frequently once he’d gotten used to being in a relationship with him but that refused to go away. Ikuya made him feel like this at least once a day, and sometimes he wondered if he knew it.

“I mean,” he said, louder this time, and finally turned around to face him, “how hard can it be to bake a cake? It said on the website that it was an easy recipe. I made sure that I knew how to do everything, but then nothing worked out and I just—” He stopped mid-sentence and finished with a sigh.

Well, the surprise part had worked out, at least?

Hiyori had to force back his fond laughter and intense thoughts of _you’re so cute_ that would have definitely spilled out normally.

“Why cake, though?” he asked instead.

“Because you said you haven’t found a café that sells good strawberry cake like back in Shionezaki yet. So I thought, maybe if I can make it …” Ikuya was blushing at this point and it took all of Hiyori’s willpower not to kiss him right here and now. “You made those nice pistachio cookies for me too. I needed to pay you back somehow. And just asking you to help me make it would have ruined the whole idea of that.”

Oh, Ikuya. His sweet, stubborn Ikuya. Hiyori could feel his lips twisting upward involuntarily, and he was pretty sure the glare that got sent in his direction was his punishment for that, but it didn’t amount to much compared to the flutter in his chest.

“You know, now that the surprise is blown over anyway, let’s try again tomorrow. Together.”

“I have to clean this up first,” Ikuya muttered and relocated his glare to the mess that had once been called a kitchen. “And don’t you dare say you’ll help me. This is all my fault.”

“It’s technically my fault, too,” Hiyori mused, cocking his head. “I mean, if it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t even have attempted it.”

“Like I said, don’t you dare say you’ll help me.”

Fine, there went that plan. He wasn’t _happy_ letting Ikuya take care of all of this on his own – no single person ever should, honestly – but he wouldn’t let him either way, so he might as well concede, though not without leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to his boyfriend’s lips.

Not surprisingly, he tasted like strawberry.

When he drew back, he realised that his glasses were stained with the same pink liquid still in Ikuya’s hair – strawberry cream? Too watery strawberry cream, but from the looks of it, that was the best explanation – and he pointed at it. “Uh, but you should probably wash your hair first. Need help getting it all out?”

Ikuya looked at him for a second, looking very clearly as if he was about to say ‘I can take care of it myself’, but then something in his expression shifted and a defeated smile appeared on his lips. “Yes. Thank you.”

“Alright—”

“But that’s all. No helping beyond that point.”

“Yeah, yeah, I understand.” He enjoyed helping Ikuya, though. His boyfriend was always working so hard at practice and even school – harder than Hiyori, and Hiyori was already doing a lot – and it still was Hiyori’s responsibility to look out for him. Or maybe he just liked pampering him. Probably both. He’d always been the more proactive one in their relationship, not that he minded; the very fact that Ikuya trusted him enough to let him be that meant the world to him.

Although he really did need to teach him how to bake that cake.

**Author's Note:**

> Hiyori taking care of Ikuya is good but hear me out ... Ikuya ... trying to take care of Hiyori
> 
> tumblr: http://toono-hiyori.tumblr.com/ cry with me about Toono Hiyori please and thank you


End file.
